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Fitchburg High track quartet hits its stride

Fitchburg's Charlie Jackson takes part in the 4x440 relay during the Mid-Wach championship in 2015 at Fitchburg High School. SENTINEL & ENTERPRISE / ASHLEY GREEN

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FITCHBURG -- The next big acronym to look out for is CAKE. Not to be confused with the 1990s alternative rock band or the delicious treat you eat at celebrations, CAKE in Fitchburg stands for the biggest relay threat that Fitchburg High has had the pleasure of compiling in quite some time.

Charlie Jackson, Angel Figueroa, Kobe Saddler and Eli Ashmore have been rising throughout the season, and last week took top honors in the Division 3 4x200-meter relay.

The quartet is on the verge of setting a school record and also primed to make a statement at the all-state track championship on Sunday at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury. Perhaps most impressively, this group is all juniors, and if they remain healthy they still have another year of improvement ahead of them.

"Our training schedule is having them peak in our championship season," Fitchburg High head coach Cindy Donelan said. "They are working very hard and it's all falling into place as we get into these championship meets. They want it, they can taste it. They want to win and to get the school record."

The ringleader of the group is Figueroa, who enters as one of the preeminent middle-sprinting threats in the entire state. Figueroa matched the relays success at the Division 3 championship, winning the 300-meter dash with a time of 36.05 seconds to edge out two Catholic Memorial runners who were within a second of him.

Figueroa's time this week broke his own school record in the event. Figueroa enters as the eighth seed in the 300, where about 1.

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25 seconds separate him from the top.

"My toughest competition in-season was a runner from Burncoat, Rodney Agyare-May, and Nikolas Smith from Northampton," Figueroa said. "(Agyare-May) is

running the 600 (where he holds the meet record). The only competitive 300 races I've been in are all at Reggie and I've been in the top heats."

Figueroa is a lead runner since his arrival in Fitchburg and has ascended to the elite level in the sport in a short amount of time.

"It's just about hard work," Figueroa said. "It's about practicing hard and getting out there and doing what you have to do. I give it everything I've got."

The 4x200 took top honors at the Division 3 meet with a 1:32.67, besting the nearest competitor by 1.5 seconds or so. The quartet enters the state meet as the eighth seed, where about a second separates it from the top seed.

Ashmore just missed qualifying for all-states in the 55-meter dash, finishing a fraction of a second out with a time of 6.76. With one less event to worry about this week for the three other runners, the majority of the team can focus on relay work.

All four runners mentioned the goal of breaking the school's 4x200-meter relay record. Jeff Guenette, Harold Mateo, Jason Quinn and Dallas Heckel set the record in 1999 at 1:32.64, and the current Red Raider relay is just 0.03 seconds off of that pace.

"We have to work harder this week to get success," Ashmore said. "We need to compete harder. We're definitely close to the school record, so I think we can break it."

All four splits for the 800-meter relay are around the 22- or 23-second range, creating a good in-house competition amongst the four athletes.

"It's a good competition," Figueroa said. "I get a good push from my teammates. It's helpful for the 4x200."

In addition to being classmates, the relay members have spent a lot of time working together, putting in the extra work and forming strong bonds. The group set the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association Freshman/Sophomore meet record in the event last year.

"We've all improved so much since the beginning of the season," Jackson said. "There's a chance Sunday could be our last meet, so we want to make sure we have the best race we can this season."

In the sprint-oriented relays, Saddler and the rest of the group are well aware that the slightest misstep, cutoff, box-in, or minor handoff gaffe can cost an entire race, particularly with comparable elite competition fighting to move fast and in tight quarters.

Saddler also competed individually at the divisional meet, finishing 23rd in the 55-meter dash with a time of 7.02.

"There's a lot of pressure in the event," Saddler said. "When we see the seeded times are really close together, we focus on beating that one time that's the fastest, even though we are really close. It all depends on the handoffs really, and we've worked on them a lot, and they're almost perfect now."

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